


𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒

by urlocalbeech



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV), Peaky Blinders RPF
Genre: Dominant Tommy Shelby, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, Male-Female Friendship, Possessive Tommy Shelby, Shameless Smut, Smut, Tommy Shelby Has Issues, Tommy Shelby Needs a Hug, Touch-Starved Tommy Shelby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:20:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29956011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urlocalbeech/pseuds/urlocalbeech
Summary: They’re friends but he doesn’t know how to come to terms with wanting more. More from her, more of her ... he just wants more.
Relationships: Tommy Shelby/Original Character(s), Tommy Shelby/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

"You're only allowed in if you-" She stops mid sentence as he raised the bottle of whiskey to her eye level. "Bring a drink, I know." He said with a raise of his amused brows. She beamed and moved aside, Tommy passed her and she shuts the door, hoping the pungent smell of Small Heath hadn't overpowered her usual vanilla-scented home. When she turned around, he had already shrugged off his coat and she takes it from him, then hangs it on her coat rack. His shoulders drop, already feeling a sense of calmness washing over him, it first emitted from the sigh escaping his lips, and it slowly settled right in his chest, welcoming him like a longtime needed hug from a loved one. 

They settle on her cream coloured sofa, the one he had bought her. She sits on the right side, her back against the hand rest, and her feet tucked beneath her. He settled down on the left side, and turned at the sound of a pop. She had uncorked the bottle. 

"I really don't know how you do that." 

"Just one of my many talents." She takes a swig and he watches. No glasses then, he thinks as she passed it to him. "There's a new barmaid at the garrison." He brings up the strange altercation from a few hours prior. "Yeah? Is she pretty?" She waits for him to gulp the substance down for an answer. "Too pretty to be working there." He answered, and she kicked him in the thigh. It was more like a prod. "Oi! I used to work there, you foul cunt." She scowls at him, and she watches the git try not to smile. "And you quit." He turns to her, and she could only roll her eyes. 'The stubborn wench ... never admits when I'm right.' Tommy thinks. "That's not completely false." She settled with, and he heavily sighed. 'Dramatic little nuisance.' Sapphire thinks. 

"My point exactly, pretty girls shouldn't have such ugly jobs." He shuddered at the thought of Ada on the receiving end of drunk slobs barking requests at her.

"So what you're saying is, if I had a horse-face, i would of been well off?" She tilts her head as she waits for an answer. He isn't looking at her, but she can see that smile on his face. He turns to her, a tilt in his own head. "But you haven't got a horse face." He stated, and she gifts him a snobby smile that made him turn away, with a thin lipped grin still etched on his face. "Oh, you're just so charming." She said with an enthusiastic lift in her voice, her head rolling off of the arm rest, like she'd been wooed from nonstop flattery. He chuckled, the sound rumbling from his throat, his chest lifting as he did. She laughs with him, only silently, just to hear his. 

"That's literally all I hear at my work place, I'm sick of it." She groans, he looks at her disbelievingly. "Oh, Tommy Shelby. He's so bad, but God those eyes." She watched him turn away, unsure if it was because he hated it or loved it. "And there's the, I refuse to be under the same roof as that man, even though you literally pay for the food on their tables but that's beside the point. The point is that—what was the point? Oh, that you were under the same roof as them— that day you visited me at work, I'm not joking when I say they would've lifted their skirts up so fas-"

"Sapph." He warned, but he could not wipe that amused grin off his face.

"-st. I'm telling you, Eileen was practically frothing at the mouth. She wanted you so bad, she even did that oh I dropped something, trick. And you fell for it!" 

"Is it not possible she just dropped something?" Sapphire sits up, as if to emphasise her point. "She's a seamstress, for God sake, Thomas. You know how much hand eye coordination goes in to that and you really believe she dropped that on purpose? I thought you were the smart one." She tutted, and he was overwhelmed by how much she'd thought of the subject. "Who said I'm the smart one?" But this was all that he needed after the day he had. He didn't want to think of guns, or inspectors, or ex best-friend communists.

"Oh, only every fucking one of my female co-workers." She took the chance and he groaned, how had he walked right into that one? "Oh, he's so smart, maybe he can go on about exports while I suck him-" the rest of her words had been muffled by the whiskey bottle he put between her lips, to shut her up. But, he had felt something light in his chest, hope. He didn't know why it enlightened him that she cared about that. He simmered back in his seat, and watched her pull the bottle from her lips, and swallow the remnants in her mouth. "I think I should set you up with Eileen." She suggested, that small swirl of hope diminished with her words.

Tommy was growing uncomfortable at the thought of being with someone, everyone knew he hadn't wanted someone like that since the war. She sensed it. "She's a nice girl, really. Just has a silly crush, and we all get like that when we like someone." He turned to her, a curiosity rippling in the blue pools of his eyes. "Do you get like that?" He asked, watching the lightness in her brown eyes, he sees that her eyes are circulating the room. "With Marcus, all the time." She admits and he turned away. 

"Where is he, doesn't he usually get Wednesdays off?"

She quirks her head at him, with a dubious look. "You would know, you're his boss." She trailed off, in a humorous way. "Where is he?" He asked again, sensing that she was trying to gear the conversation in another direction. He watched her inhale, and exhale with a puff of her cheeks. "We uh— we broke up." She half smiles, and Tommy frowns. "Again? What did he do this time?" Sapphire smiles, knowing he loved the gossip, but the brown in her eyes seemed sadder. 

"It's not that— you don't really don't want to-"

"Tell me." He hardly ever ordered things of her.

"It's kind of, uh-" She chuckled, awkwardly but Tommy only blinked. Sapphire was a shockingly open person, there were things that she'd told him, that he would never be able to unknow and he was partially sure that if she told a doctor half of those things, she'd be immediately institutionalised.

"Alright, well, you asked for it so it's your funeral. He cummed inside of me when I told him not to, I think he he was trying to trap me into marriage, and now I might actually be pregnant, so." His eyes drop, and so does his heart. The blue marbles trail down to her stomach, then to the bottle of whiskey in her hands. "Should you be drinking that?" He asked, knowing full well an expected mother shouldn't be. "No, but ... I don't want to be a mother, not to Marcus's kids ... not to anyone's." He nodded, but he sees the waver in her eyes and hears it in her voice. 

"How's Lizzie?" He looked at her with annoyed expression, she wanted to turn the spotlight on him now. "Good." He sighed, and rolled his shoulders back. "Does it help? To have someone to ... you know, unload on?" He cringed, missing the crudeness. It seemed, she was taking his feelings into account. Why had that made him more uncomfortable?

"Temporarily." He admitted. It didn't stop the pain, it only moved it.

"If you had someone like that, all the time, it could be permanent." She suggested, and he rolled his neck to look at her. "You offering?" He raised a brow, her top lip quirks up into a scowl. "I will smash this whiskey bottle over your big head." She threatened, and Tommy tried not to shrink back. "I don't have a big head." He protested, and she snorted. "Yes, you do. Both metaphorically and physically." She laughs, he doesn't laugh with her, but somehow the offence on his face had made it even funnier. 

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, Sapph. I might just pay you another visit at work, just so you have to hear your colleagues fawn over me, all over again."

"Uh, no. That's just evil, Tom. You're here by now banned from my workplace."

"Your workplace?" He rolled his eyes. "You work in my factory."

"And I could just as well quit."

"And I could just as well have you replaced." He smirked. Sapphire's mouth falls open. 

"I'd like to see you try." She snarled.

"Y'know I wouldn't get too mouthy, it's hard enough being a working mother, but an unemployed one at that?" He tutted, and bit his lip to stop him from smiling when he heard her let out a disbelieving scoff. "You're such a prick." She chuckled.

"I bet that's not what Eileen thinks." He drinks up the narked look on Sapphire's face. "I'm just putting you on, if I liked Eileen that much, would've made her foreman, wouldn't I?"

"So you gave me that position because you just like me so much?" Her words were a test, a lifetime with his aunt Polly had taught him that. "Yes." He answered and watched her sit up right, as if she was about to say 'oh really?' He smirks. 'Little devil, thinks she can win one on me.' He thinks. "And because you earned it, you're also the only one I know who can out yell Arthur, so that helps." He added, and listens to her chuckles. "You yell like a six foot man with two pistols, you know that?" He questioned, not being able to help himself from chuckling, Sapphire just laughs harder, not wanting to accept it. "No, I don't." But he could see it in her smile, she knew she did too. The laughter dies down, after a while.

"Tommy, there's an inspector coming here, the people are saying. Coming for communists and fenians, I heard." She watched him nod his head. "Yep, they're not after jobless expecting mothers. So, you should be all good." She didn't notice how he was deflecting the conversation, and she only chuckled. 

"Yeah, true. You know, there's no shame in a woman not working."

"What about the modern way of things, thought you were all for it?"

"See, that's where you're wrong. I'm all for choice. Who knows, maybe I'll choose to be a house-wife. S'not something to be ashamed of, it's hard work. In-fact, I might even be considering it."

Tommy pulls a face at the thought of Sapphire cooking and cleaning.

"Sapph, I'm sitting here and I can already see burnt oven gloves," he points towards the kitchen, "I don't think you've ever even turned that oven on, and you blew up your toaster just last week." When he turned to her, she was avoiding his gaze. "I swear you could be an anarchist, you have a natural talent for blowing things."

"Did Marcus tell you that?" 

He looked at her, and blinked. It was the first time one of her jokes had flew over his head and she smirked. Oh, how the toasters had turned.

"Well, I don't think I've ever sucked you off." She shrugged, and he rolled his eyes, a small proud smile playing on his lips. 

"Fucking hell." He swore and she grinned wider. He pulls his pocket watch out, and exhales. "I have somewhere to be." He goes to sit up but is stopped when Sapphire talks. "To kill Danny Owen?" She questioned and he looked towards her. "How'd y'know about that?" He watched her expression drop. "I saw him do it. I was buying bread when he killed that Italian." She looked at him with sad eyes, "He looked so confused, Tom. Like he was someplace else." He turned away, a heavy feeling in his chest. 

'We're all someplace else,' he thinks. And now, he had to kill his good friend. Back in France, Danny stabbed the enemy in the back, saving Thomas's life. She recalled him telling her that. No matter how necessary it was to do, it would hurt him all the same.

But, she understands. She understands who he is, and she doesn't try to change him. A part of Tommy thought that it was because she didn't love him that she didn't want him to change, and the other believed it was because she didn't expect any more of him, and she never wanted to.

"You can come to me, after you do it."

"Marcus won't be there?" He asked, staring off into the distance as he waited for her answer.

"Marcus won't be there." She clarified.


	2. Chapter 2

Marcus hadn't been there. 

Tommy came to her, a lot less distressed than she'd expected him to be, but his eyes said it all. They were red around the rim, and they didn't shine with that amused glint, not like before. 'Do you need comfort or solutions?' She'd asked him, and, "comfort,' he replied in a low rumble. They sat on the sofa, with the fire blazing, and they hadn't said much. But, sometimes ... and especially with a man of few words, like Tommy; sharing your silence with someone could be healing too. He wondered how she knew it was just what he needed.

He wanted to leave as it had gotten late, and Sapph had scolded him like his mother used to. She said he was in no shape to be roaming the streets, and so she searched for the blanket she usually reserved for him. It was a creamy, white colour and combined with the heat of the fire, it was always just what Tommy needed to sleep through the night on her sofa. 

The clinking of glass woke him up. He squints, and for a moment Sapph thinks he looks just a bit cute, he would kill her if he ever knew. She tried not to chuckle, and watched him sit up. There was tea, and buttered toast on a plate, all laid out on the wooden table in-front of the sofa. He groans as the hangover kicks eat. 

"Eat up, you'll need." 

"No, thanks." He said, and the brunette crossed her arms. "I'm not leaving until you eat, Thomas." She declared, he looks at her, and just blinks. 

"This is your house, Sapph. I'll just leave." 

She realises her mistake and pauses. If he's amused, his headache prevented him from showing it.

"Would you just stop being so difficult and eat the fucking toast?"

"How did you even make toast without a toaster?"

"Tom."

"It's a genuine question, Sapph."

"I used the pan, now will you eat? I have to get to work if I don't want to end up jobless, my boss has already threatened to replace me."

"You know I never could." He said, but in a misleadingly sweet way that made her squint her eyes and scowl. "If it means that much to you." He hastily agreed, and lifts a piece of toast. 'Dickhead. Too stubborn to show he's backing down.' But she feels relieved that he did. "It does." She admitted, he looked at her, but she was already heading towards the kitchen; he wondered if it was to avoid his gaze, but then she re-emerged with food for herself. He raised his eyes at the amount of chopped up fruit, there was yogurt too, she only looked up at him with wrathful brown eyes. 

"What? It's healthy."

"Forgot you were eating for two." He took another bite of his toast. Sapphire rolled her eyes. "You're not funny." She stated, staring into her bowl. 

"Wasn't joking." He blows air from his nose, a small amused sound he often did when he wasn't chuckling.

She looked up from her bowl, "do you know someone? A nurse ..." He looked up at her, realising she was solid on not keeping the bairn. He slowly blinks, and she shakes her head at him, waiting for an answer. "No, never me. I haven't been in a situation with a girl like that. But, Arthur's practically a pro at this point, I'm sure he know's the woman's number by heart." He watched her snort in amusement, "Sounds like Arthur." She chuckled, and Tommy quirked a brow, remembering the stress his family had been under each time. His mind wonders ... why had she resulted to speaking to him— a male of all things— about this? Maybe, she needed the support Marcus couldn't give her.

“You’re really going through with this.” The statement sounded more like a question. She drops her spoon to the bowl. “Its ... I’m not the mummy type, I don’t like kids and I don’t want them.” She seemed confident in her answer. Tommy looked at her, he didn’t want to seem like he was affected by her words, and he only nodded.

"You gonna tell Marcus about it?" He watched her eyes, she was considering it. But, when she turned to him and shook her head, he knew her mind was made up. "Who are you gonna take with you?" She exhales, her shoulders drop, and she smiled at him. It wasn't as genuine as she wanted it to seem. "Myself." She chuckled, it wasn't like her usual, full of life laugh. "I got myself into this situation, I'll get myself out of it." She tries to distract herself with her food, mixing the contents. 

"It takes two, Sapph. And it doesn't mean you can't have someone there for support."

"What? You would hold my hand while they suck a life out of me?" She chuckled, bitterly and stared at the berries in her yogurt. As if a man would want to be present at something so grimy and gross, men these days didn't even like witnessing the birth of their own child. Why would a man want to be there to witness the death of a life that hadn't begun, the life of a child that wasn't even theirs?

"Yeah." Tommy replied, with no trace of humour or hilarity in his voice. There was none at all. He was almost hurt that she doubted he would. She stared at him, their gazes never leaving each other, and she took in the extent of his words, combined with his eyes, they were too overwhelming to handle, and so she looked away. She stirred her spoon, and looked back up at him when she was sure of what to say. 

"I don't really want you to see all of that, you shouldn't have to." She decided. 

"You're right, Marcus should be the one to." There was an obvious annoyance in his tone. "Wouldn't want him there, anyway." She shrugged. Tommy felt like he was the one out of options. 

"Ada would go with you if you asked."

"Maybe, I'll ask her then." She shrugged, knowing she wouldn't, but if it helped him sleep. He nodded, like he won a bloody negotiation. She looked towards the plate on the table and saw he finished his toast, and drank his tea. She smiled. "How's that headache?" She asked, and he realised it had disappeared. "Gone, huh?" She questioned, earning a astonished look only in his eyes. 

"The herbs in the tea, it's good for migraines. I bought it from the market." 

"Just tasted like normal tea." He looked down at the tea leaves at the bottom of his tea cup. 

"Might just be the placebo effect, then." She shrugged.

"Or poison." He muttered and she winked .


End file.
